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“Another sample from the 2016 Chawang sample group buy I participated in earlier this year. This one was definitely dominated by bitter/astringent notes in my experience. The two sessions I did...” Read full tasting note
“After around 12 steeps on this tea I decided to take a step back and think to myself: A newer raw puerh has to REALLY set itself apart to be looked at again in the near future opposed to potential...” Read full tasting note
“I’ve decided to go back and review all of the samples I got via the 2016 group buy. I’ve had the samples about 6 months, stored in a room that has averaged 60% humidity. This was the first...” Read full tasting note
You Shang 幽赏: Enjoy the quiet
Jinggu area is home of many ancient gardens in high mountains, trees growing mostly in good enviroment. This tea come from single garden in mountain about one hour by car and then 2 hours of fast walking to the top of the mountain. Tea trees are completly in the forest. Tea trees are in age 150-200 years. This garden had not been picked for many decades because is too far from the village and the farmer who own it do good business with tobbaco and garden teas around the village. It was picked first in autumn 2014 after very long time of growing wild without human intervention. Tea trees there are extremly tall and is very hard to do the harvest. This is an special example of puerh tea when is not overpicked, growing in deep forest and also high mountain.
Hand-made processing, sun-dried, stored well until December 2016, stone compressed in traditional way. This tea have very unique taste, strong and rich, heavy aroma, slightly bitter in first infusions, with fast huigan. This tea can be brewed for many times.
Manufacturer : Cha Wang Shop
Production date: Harvest early April 2016., pressed December 2016
Harvest Area : Xiao Jinggu, Simao
Company description not available.
Another sample from the 2016 Chawang sample group buy I participated in earlier this year. This one was definitely dominated by bitter/astringent notes in my experience. The two sessions I did with boiled water were not particularly enjoyable. I was getting almost no sweetness cutting through the wall of tannic astringency.
I finally was able to get a better read on the tea when I did a session with 200F water. Still had a pretty sharp astringent edge, but I finally started to get some nice floral sweet huigan coming through. This tea is nice and thick and has some pretty good energy behind it as well.
When I try young teas, most of them fall somewhere into the category of “this is good now, but could improve with age.” This one really isn’t worth drinking now, but when that astringency starts to soften, I think it could become something really nice. Would I pick up a cake depending on that to happen? Most likely not…but I bet it would turn out well.
Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Vegetal
After around 12 steeps on this tea I decided to take a step back and think to myself: A newer raw puerh has to REALLY set itself apart to be looked at again in the near future opposed to potential for down the line.
With that train of thought I came to conclude that this was was quite similar to the majority of spring jingmai cakes that I tried from 2016 to the point that this didn’t really interest me much afterwards which is fine, however the question is how long the sweetness will last in this tea before it mature and takes on a possible new road if that happens.
Not on the bottom, not on the top, probably somewhere in the middle.
That’s funny. That’s exactly how I feel about the 2017 Chawang Jinggu.
From Chawang Shop?
Yeah. It’s not the same tea, but likely the same mountain: https://www.chawangshop.com/2017-chawangpu-jinggu-zi-de-gushu-puerh-tea-200g.html
I’ve decided to go back and review all of the samples I got via the 2016 group buy. I’ve had the samples about 6 months, stored in a room that has averaged 60% humidity. This was the first sample, and the good taste is what inspired me to try all the others. I may have to place an order.
The first steep didn’t have much nose, but the taste is good: straw with some stone fruit underneath. Nice chewy texture. 2nd steep (10s): Much nicer nose shows spice and old leather. Powerful taste with full body in the mouth and strong finish. Strong cha qi. Strong, yet elegant. Slightly acidic, but not very tannic or bitter. 3rd (20s): Big and spicy and beginning to get very tannic (my mouth is all puckered). 4th (30s): Still very good, but I’m seeing less flavor; just tannin, though less than before. 5th (1m): Nose is rich and spicy. Excellent taste also shows spice. Much less tannic. I got another 6 steeps or so (much more than I normally get from a 4 gram sample. They were all very enjoyable, with good taste, not much bitterness, and gradually becoming less complex.
